By 
Just a few hours after publishing a story regarding my experience participating in the Windows Phone challenge at the Santa Clara Microsoft Store, my article hit the Reddit front-page. It was not long before dozens of publications picked up the story as well.
Microsoft Evangelist Ben Rudolph (@BenThePCGuy) was kind enough to offer a rematch as I had requested. However, he publicly tweeted the following message this morning before I had a chance to respond likely due to a storm of angry tweets.
@BenThePCGuy Thanks! Email Sent.
— Sahas Katta (@sahaskatta) March 26, 2012
I exchanged emails with Ben regarding the matter earlier today and learned that a laptop and phone were aside for me at the Santa Clara Microsoft Store. I dropped by this evening and after spending a few minutes chatting with two rather extremely friendly store managers, I walked out with a $1,049 Hunger Games Special Edition HP Folio 13 and a $899 Nokia Lumia 800 Bundle.
I recently just purchased a new HP Envy 15 and I am rather happy with my smart phone, so I decided to put both of these up for auction on eBay. I will ship the highest bidder of each listing the respective device and donate 100% of the proceeds to a charity of with the help of Reddit’s choosing.
eBay Auctions:
As always, let me know if you have any questions.
Sahas,
You’re a twerp – you give nerds a bad name. Microsoft did the right thing here and you should acknowledge that after your whining rant.
considering other major publications like Verge have investigated this it is pretty clear Microsoft made a mistake up and they are making up for it.
note to self: probably should not feed the troll.
the link for anyone interested: http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/26/2903838/exclusive-microsoft-smoked-by-windows-phone-android-risks/in/2667349
Indeed, what a douchebag.
Unbuscribing
Yeah, what a douche bag, can’t believe he’s selling a few items given to him by a multi-billion dollar company so that he can give the proceeds to charity. It’s people like him that are going to make microsoft go broke, right?
Yeah. I can’t believe he’s donating $1900 worth of prizes for thousands of dollars worth of free advertising.
yeah he could’ve ask Microsoft to donate to his charity of choice in placement of taking the prize. I guess he’s trying to make a point.
they didn’t do the right thing – they were pressured into fixing one of the most assuredly many problems that this incredibly stupid marketing promo caused because of the risk of bad PR. Sahas doesn’t need to acknowledge anything other than that it takes a ridiculous amount of bad PR to make Microsoft follow through on promises.
Correction. An employee didn’t do the right thing. Microsoft rectified the bad PR.
I suppose Apple lost prototype iphones twice and it wasn’t the employee’s fault.
Pissed-off Microsoft employee ahhahahah
It’s a local non-profit, but I’d love to see that money go to computers4kids in Charlottesville, VA. Their website is located at http://www.computers4kids.net. Great non-profit offering mentoring for kids from low income families and provides them with free computers after they finish two tech related projects with their mentor. Can’t say enough good about them.
I’d like to see the money go to DonorsChoose.
@sahas
you are awesome, just wanted you to know :)
Microsoft did the right thing?
By screwing him over to save their image?
Even if what they did is justified in light of their retribution, what is so wrong with him donating this money to charity?
Its great that Microsoft accepted their mistake and made their apology which is more than enough when compared with the prize they give.
I absolutely like the idea Sahas’ idea of providing the gift(or tha cash equivalent from e-bay) to charity.
But I have one question (please don’t consider this in the wrong sense), If you’re already satisfied with your current laptop & smartphone, what is the need to participate in a contest? Is it to prove that Android is better than MS Phone? or is it the donation idea even from the scratch?
Everyone likes to win something, it doesn’t matter if you already have something better it’s the winning that matters.
The competition was stupid of course. it should never of run. “who can pull up the temperature of two cities faster? our top notch phone or yours? winner gets prizes!”. It was a blatant setup that just happened to happen to the guy with the right setup on his phone.
Props to Sahas for deciding to sell the “prizes” and donate the proceeds to charity. It seems to be the best way to deal with the publicity and do something good about it.
I had a chance to win a $1000 laptop for free, of course I would take the challenge! Why not? I only live 15 minutes away from that Microsoft Store too.
I didn’t realize a quick blog post would turn into a media circus. After all the chaos, I felt it was best just to just give it away to charity.
Also — Android is not simply better than Windows Phone. There are many categories where Microsoft excels by making the interface significantly more intuitive and tasks faster to accomplish.
I think you should’ve taken the rematch along with taking the prizes and apology. I think you took the challenge under deceptive circumstances and not taking the rematch doesn’t prove you didn’t cheat.
Would you be willing to donate it to a poor hungry homeless college student who need s a computer for class?
Just wanted to say you’re an amazing person, God bless you.
Why can you not just donate the laptop to charity instead?
You’re never going to shift that phone
Well done Sahas. Nice to see the proceeds of your win will be benefitting others less fortunate.
This has bee quite some drama but I do think both Ben and Microsoft have handled it well in the aftermath.
Please consider donating proceeds to ALD Life – http://www.aldlife.org.
ALD is an inherited metabolic disease affecting the myelin covering nerves in the brain, leading to degeneration of the adrenal glands, neurological disability and ultimately death.
My brother passed away at age 10 from this disease. Please help if you can.
Ei guize, I has an idea! Y nt jst giv d proceeds to d Invisible Children Foundation! LL0L0L00L0L0L0L0L!!!!111!!!one!!!1!!
I agree, please send all proceeds to the invisible children:
http://www.invisiblechildren.com/
don’t do it. They’ll do shit with it. Buy weapons for idiots who try to kill other idiots. Give it to a real charity please!
I probably would have kept the laptop and the device, you’re a way better person than I am. Congratulations on being awesome!
This really is a shame for Microsoft. Sadly their marketing is tricky and unfair.
Sell the phone – keep the laptop.
your local foodbank
Did the Microsoft store have you sign anything for the 2 prizes? If so, you are likely going to get a notice in the mail that you owe taxes on your winnings. Typically 40% of the full retail value. That’s typically how contests work. I don’t think you are exempt from taxes because you donated the items to charity. You just get a larger deduction if you itemize.
Just so you know.
I am definitely aware of that. Not sure how it will work.
So you cheated then! BUT OH YES YOU DID, You admit to previously disabling the lock screen!
This is just a very clear demo of how what seems obvious to most, is oblivious to others.
MS did the right thing in that they gave you a prize, because they should have set out the rules more clearly (i.e. lock screen must not be disabled!!).
I don’t see how it’s cheating if its an option is the normal settings. Also The rules for this contest were very ambiguous at best, if they had made them more detailed then they could have said he lost, but I would be willing to say he would win even if he had to unlock it as the home widgets are cached ahead of time and load very fast especially on the galaxy nexus
So where’s the eBay linky?
Super Twerp move dude, you weaseled your way into a laptop and phone package, congrats…..I’m sick of hearing about this loser. MS deserves credit for responding to your whiny dumbass
Microsoft is always arrogant to the competition in many ways. They try to define the good from bad based on their own limits.
They got smoked and that’s it.
LOL, Microsoft is so crap. It wasn’t enough that they looked like idiots with that zombie dance when they launched Windows Phailure… now this.
Highly intelligent comment. Another blind MS hating internet mongoloid with what amounts to nothing substantial backing up his hatred.
“Highly intelligent comment.”
Highly intelligent answer.
“Another blind MS hating internet mongoloid”
As opposed to regular mongoloids?
“with what amounts to nothing substantial”
Writing “with nothing substantial” was not contrived enough?
“backing up his hatred”
Yet you’re the one who resorted to personal attacks… not to mention you avoided answering the same way to the personal attacks written above towards “Sahas Katta”. How is it to be a M$ fanboy?
Hey look at me everyone! I cheated on a contest and made a big stink about it when they didn’t give me my prize! So instead of a rematch to show that I didn’t cheat or asking Microsoft to forward the cost of my prize to a charity of my choice, I’m going to milk this story by promoting what a great guy I am by auctioning off this free stuff on ebay! Just to make me look good!
“I had a chance to win a $1000 laptop for free, of course I would take the challenge! Why not? I only live 15 minutes away from that Microsoft Store too.
I didn’t realize a quick blog post would turn into a media circus. After all the chaos, I felt it was best just to just give it away to charity”
It sounds like :
“Whoa, a $1000 laptop for free. I don’t need it, but worth a try”. Then he went to the challenge, and disappointed because the MS rep was not fair(his side of the story). He posted it on his blog, caused chaos, and eventually got his prize. Then he thought, “Hmm I don’t need it anyway. Why don’t I give it away to charity, it should makes me look good”.
Found the ebay link to his auction.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Folio-13-1051nr-The-Hunger-Games-Special-Edition-/180851504874?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item2a1b96f6ea
Interesting that you had links to the whole situation in your ebay post. You must be so humbled to the whole experience. I’d rather bid for the other auction that’s going to pay for the guy’s wife’s tuition. I trust him more.